''Chatrak'' ( en, Mushrooms) is a 2011

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n Bengali erotic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Sri Lankan director Vimukthi Jayasundara. It was screened at several film festivals worldwide, including the Directors' Fortnight at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

Rahul (Sudeep Mukherjee) is a Bengali architect working at construction sites in Dubai. He returns home to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

after several years. His girlfriend, Paoli (

Paoli Dam Paoli Dam (born 1980) is an Indian actress who started her career with the Bengali television serial ''Jibon Niye Khela'' (2003). She then worked in Bengali television serials such as ''Tithir Atithi'' and ''Sonar Harin''; the former ran for ...

), has been waiting for his return. Rahul's seemingly successful life is overshadowed by the search for his brother (Sumeet Thakur), said to now be mad and living in the forest, where he sleeps in the trees and subsists on vegetation. This brother befriends a French soldier in the jungle. Rahul and Paoli journey in search of his lost brother. The story involves people who are expropriated for construction projects.

Cast

as Paoli * Sudip Mukherjee as Rahul * Tómas Lemarquis as French soldier * Sumeet Thakur as brother of Rahul * Anubrata Basu as Anubrata

Release and screenings

''Chatrak'' was screened at film festivals like the prestigious Directors' Fortnight in the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, the

2011 Toronto International Film Festival The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film ...

and the Pacific Meridian film festival in

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( rus, Владивосто́к, a=Владивосток.ogg, p=vɫədʲɪvɐˈstok) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, Russia. The city is located around the Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, c ...

, Russia. It has not received a theatrical release.

Reception

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' commented on ''Mushrooms'' that, "The film's abstract naturalism does create an austere portrait of a crass and careless human society but any larger meaning gets lost amid the film's many non-events and preening nihilism." The ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' review noted the "extremely slow-burning story", saying, "... the main element uniting Jayasundara's plot strands is a sense of torpor..." A review in the online film magazine ''Notebook'' praised the film, noting that it artistically portrays "...Cinematic dreams and nightmares, visible intuitions of the world around, visual understanding of what corruption of the society and corruption of the soul can do." ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...

'' of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

praised it, stating "Disconcerting though the plot may at least initially be, the film has its wild as well as some comic moments that soon win the viewer over."

Controversy

A scene in ''Chatrak'' with explicit frontal nudity has caused uproar in India, especially in

, where the film was mainly shot. A version without the sexually explicit scene was arranged to be shown in the 2011 Kolkata Film Festival. Director Jayasundara admitted that there are several versions of ''Chatrak'', and some do not contain the sex scene. He also admitted that he was surprised to witness negative feedback due to the inclusion of such sex scene in his film.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1922569, Mushrooms 2011 films Indian erotic drama films 2010s erotic drama films Films directed by Vimukthi Jayasundara Films set in Kolkata Films shot in Kolkata Bengali-language Indian films 2010s Bengali-language films 2011 drama films